The disposal of glass and ceramic material presents problems. More specifically, apparatus for crushing glass is known. The known apparatus crushes the glass with a view to reducing the volume occupied by the glass so that the glass can then be more easily handled. The crushed glass contains very sharp fragments which make the glass dangerous to handle. This in turn severely restricts any possible further use to which the glass fragments can be put. Currently, commercial uses for crushed glass are limited to asphalt grog for roads, and shot blasting media in small volumes. The vast majority of the crushed glass is simply disposed of as a land fill waste material. Such disposal of the crushed glass is not especially ecologically friendly, and the land fill sites must be such that the crushed glass is buried sufficiently deeply that its sharp edges cannot harm human and animals. Also, there are collection costs for collecting the crushed glass prior to disposal.
Ceramic material may also need to be crushed with a view to reducing the volume occupied by the ceramic material so that the ceramic material can then be more easily handled. If the ceramic material is glazed, the crushed ceramic material may contain sharp fragments, which then give rise to the same type of problems as those mentioned above for glass. Some ceramic material is not glazed, but it is often not economically possible to separate glazed and non-glazed ceramic material.